The Story of a Man and his Grill.

On September 25, 2010 my wonderful husband turned 28!  My parents and I went in on one together and were able to get a really nice one for him!

You probably can't tell, but he's thrilled!

The next day he fired it up and we all had a very tatsty dinner that night!

For his birthday we went to Tucano's, a restaurant that specializes in meat and customer weight gain.  Chad's brother in law Jeff was in town for the weekend so he joined in all the festivities! I feel so incredibly blessed to be married to such an honest, loyal and loving person.  He's my best friend! 

Bigger is Better, usually.

Once upon a time there was a princess.  This princess was invited to a lovely primary activity where she would need a car.  The King and Queen were thrilled about the activity and the King in particular wanted the absolute best car for his Princess.  The Knights were sent out on a quest to find the best cardboard box in all the land, they ended their quest in the garage and fought bravely to bring it into the castle.  The King's servants offered their aid but the King insisted this was a family project.  The Princess loved making the wheels the most.  The King provided the GPS system and sound system while the Queen supplied the plush interior made of wrapping paper.  Only the best for this Princess.  She quickly jumped in and gave it a quick test drive then the King took her to the activity in the family carriage.  Upon arrival it was discovered that the prince's and princess' would not be leisurely resting in the cars while a play was put on by the court jesters but they would be traveling through a course and completing assignments in their cars.  Lucky for the Kingdom the Princess was happy to drag her beautiful car around and sit in it for each assignment, crisis averted,.  The moral of this fairytale is that sometimes, bigger is not always better.

September 11, 2010

Kaylynn's last year of Preschool

Kaylynn is growing up so fast! On Sept. 7th she started Preschool (okay, not huge because we have been doing a mommy and me group for two years already, but this time she was going to a real one.) Ms. Heather has a preschool in her bonus room of her home (you should see it, she painted it bright colors and it looks like a kindergarten classroom).  Kaylynn has 11 classmates and is learning so much.  She adores Ms. Heather and loves going to preschool.  Here are some shots I took of her on her first day of school.

Camping Adventure #2 with more family in tow!

So after the first camping fiasco we did give it a second shot! Ben and Megan came up for the weekend

 (Sept 4-5th) and so we went out with them, my parents and my Grandma and her husband Gary.  We had a lot of fun and it was absolutely beautiful!

The set up.  This time we brought the play pen and put it in our tent for Madison and we put Kaylynn in with my parents, this worked out much better than all of us piled onto one mattress last time!

 We roasted marshmellows and made smores, sticky and yummy!

 Madison LOVES bubbles!

 At this point in the day the only shade we had was on our parking strip, so we chatted there!

So, a few of us went fishing farther away from the boats on the Lake.  Chad caught up with us later...I've always thought he was a pretty smart guy but now I have to wonder.  He didn't see the bridge to walk over so he trudged through the mucky inland part of the Lake.  Nice legs babe!

Ben caught a little guy, I think he threw him back in.

 The fishing winner was Kaylynn with her pink princess pole no less.  She was thrilled (truth be told, mommy caught the fish but like all good mothers as soon as I knew there was a fish on the line I handed the pole to Kaylynn and helped her real it in.  But shhh, don't tell her because the look on her face was priceless!)  The whole walk back to our campsite she kept wanting to name the fish.  We had to stop and talk about how this is not a pet and we probably shouldn't name something we were going to eat.  I also offered her the opportunity to put him back in the water if she didn't want to eat him.  She said no, we took him home and cooked him the next day.  I have to admit, I love fishing, but not actually catching them.  I think it's kind of gross unhooking them and really gross carrying it back to camp.  Had it just been me I would have made my dad put him back in after unhooking him.  But this was a new experience for Kaylynn and I wanted her to choose what she wanted to do. 

 This is what our drive home looked like...

I took this picture from the car while we were parked on the road...At one point Chad and Ben were both out of the cars and walking around.  It was a long ride home, thank goodness for the portable DVD player.  It totally saved our sanity for this trip!

Watermelon at Grandma and Gary's Place!

We went to visit grandma and Gary and try to take some pics of Madison since she had just turned 2.  Kaylynn ate an entire watermelon by herself (I am only exaggerating a little).  It was a fun visit, Chad was able to get a Koi fish from one pond to the other and Gary was ready to go buy some more fish for the now empty pond.  We went to the pet store with them and came home with another guinea pig because we thought Thatcher needed a friend...this was a bad decision.  We named the new guy Felix.  They did NOT get along and  over a month later they still hated each other, we found a new home for Felix and Thatcher is much more happy now! 

Gymnastics Show Day

On August 17th Madison had her first gymnastics show day! She loves gymnastics and we all love Ms. Shaina!

TA-DA!

On Show day each kiddo gets a certificate and ribbon for doing so well in gymnastics.  Madison has the perfect personality for gymnastics right now.  She loves jumping, climbing and trying new things!

Madison is 2!

Two days after her big birthday bash we celebrate her birthday as a family on her actual birthday.  As a mom I got nostalgic and spent the day remembering every little detail of the day she was born.  We love Madison and are so incredibly grateful to have her in our family.  There isn't a day that goes by that she doesn't make us laugh.  We are constantly amazed by how much she is learning.

I love the look on her face, do you think she loves me much? hehe

She got a new laptop and she loves it!

Her bubble birthday cake had a lot of "leftover cake" that wasn't used so we ate cake crumble for her birthday cake! 

 I don't think she minded though! Love you cutie pie!

Madison's Bubble Birthday Bash!

On August 14th we threw Madison's 2nd Birthday Bash!  I can't believe she is 2!  We did a bubble theme because Madison is in love with bubbles, like a lot.  We had some friend's and family over.  We had tons of bubble blowers and toys our for the kids to enjoy, it was a big hit!

Madison with Great Grandma Sparks, you have to take pictures quick with this one, otherwise you will miss her.  She's fast!

 She had fun unwrapping the presents but didn't quite know what to do about all the attention she was getting! Reece, Lincoln and Kaylynn really wanted to "help" her!

 Blowing out her candles!

 I put some of her favorite snacks out to munch on throughout the party, we had grapes and goldfish!

Swimming Lesson 2010

The end of July the girls had swim lessons.  Madison was in a mommy and me class and I had a lot of fun with  her! Kaylynn loved Ms. Stacie and loved learning how to swim!